Yu-Na to skate at NRW Trophy, Dortmund

[Olympia]

I was thinking of going to NRW Trophy depending on who is there, so now I'm definitely going. Yes!

I was thinking to ask if anyone was going. Great to hear that someone from GS will be there. I hope you get to see YuNa at her best. Don't forget to report back to us about it.

[lowtherlore]

I wonder what is really going on with Yuna? If she was really serious about skating and being in Sochi she would do more then one event a year. I don't care how good she is she needs to compete or she will be like Worlds 2011 where she was rusty. I just get the feeling that she's doing this to make sure South Korea as two spots for Sochi and that's it.

That's my concern too. She can be rusty, and meeting the SP score hurdle (for Worlds) at NRW Trophy is not a given, even for her. But no matter what her motivation for this season is -- to win or just to secure spots for 2014 -- I believe she won't be half-hearted in her effort in doing well, i.e., she's serious about her skating.

[blue dog]

This is great news. It proves that she is serious; Olympic champions don't often appear at Senior B's.

[Tonichelle]

This is great news. It proves that she is serious; Olympic champions don't often appear at Senior B's.

isn't it the only way she can appear at worlds - to get the correct score to qualify - or as OC does she get a bye?

[draqq]

isn't it the only way she can appear at worlds - to get the correct score to qualify - or as OC does she get a bye?

Yeah, she needs to get the required technical element score in the short and long to qualify for Worlds. So I'm relieved that she is going to compete earlier in the year, so that she's not completely stressed out at the Four Continents Championships (her only other ISU-recognized competition, as I far as I know).

[l'etoile]

She's not competing at 4cc. Schedule conflicts with Special Olympics Winter Games where she's serving as the ambassador.

[Krislite]

isn't it the only way she can appear at worlds - to get the correct score to qualify - or as OC does she get a bye?

No byes for being OC. She even has to skate at Korean Nationals in January and must win to be the Korean skater for Worlds. (!)

We'll at least get to see her perform her programs three times each, which is pretty decent. She typically did four competitions each season except during 08-09 and 09-10 when she did five.

I would prefer she does Korean Nationals, 4CC and Worlds, but she has a schedule conflict with 4CC. She'll likely do the GP series in the Olympic season.

I know a lot of people here are berating her for not taking her come-back more seriously by doing more competitions, but this is already a bit more than what Plushenko did leading up to Vancouver.

[lowtherlore]

I’m watching SC ladies and realizing it’s no walk in the park even for the named skaters to break the SP (and LP!) TES hurdle for Worlds.

After GPs the remaining ISU sanctioned senior events before nationals are NRW Trophy, Golden Spin and Istanbul Cup. Entry deadline for NRW Trophy is early Nov, and we might see a number of ladies submitting an entry by the end of China Cup (4-6 Nov).

Yu-Na could face some competition at NRW, which is good!

[Krislite]

Here's an article that describes her current training regimen.

Partial translation by Nadia via YNKF:

Yuna is spending about 7+ hours/day on training. She shows up at 9am to warmup, then steps on the ice at 10am. She does interval training for 40 minutes (7 minutes of fast skating / 1 min rest. Repeat 5 times).

Afterward, she practices her programs. Per Coach Shin, Yuna doesn't have the stamina to last til the end of the long program. Yuna sometimes stays behind and trains extra, even after Kwak Min Jung and Kim Haejin left.

After she's done w/ her training around 2pm, she has lunch & relaxes for a little bit. Then she does off-the-ice training, and this continues until 5pm. Shin says Yuna appears to be very tired during training, and she sighs in front of the younger skaters and jokes, "Ah I think I'm old now...!" But Shin says Yuna is very competitive, so she doesn't tolerate not being able to do better.

As expected, building up her stamina is her biggest challenge. There's about a month left to go until NRW Trophy, so her stamina should be much improved by then.

[prettykeys]

Here's an article that describes her current training regimen.

Partial translation by Nadia via YNKF:



As expected, building up her stamina is her biggest challenge. There's about a month left to go until NRW Trophy, so her stamina should much improved by then.

Thanks!

She is less than 1 month into a serious training regimen, isn't she? I have faith in her. I just hope she doesn't overwork herself and remembers to pace it.

And when in doubt, just remember Shizuka Arakawa who won her OGM at 26!

[ForeverFish]

After a season off, anything can happen. I hope Yuna's been keeping up with the new talents springing out of Russia and the US so she'll have an idea of what she's up against. As far as technique and artistry go, there isn't a skater in the world who can match what she did in Vancouver.

[Professor]

It would be interesting to see Yuna at competitive ice again! I do hope she will rock it!